Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Tonight I give you a very well written and heartfelt essay from Allison McGevna , who wrote it for HelloBeautiful.com.

"How do we present the evils of history to the innocent mind and heart of a child?
It’s a question faced time and again by educators and authors on a regular basis. And it’s a debate we need to continuously have, especially as some of the most popular books released are presenting critical, uncomfortable narratives like slavery in a whitewashed light.
One such book is A Fine Dessert: Four Centuries, Four Families, One Delicious Treat by Emily Jenkins and featuring illustrations by Sophie Blackall. The “well-intentioned” book tells the story of the history of a particular dish, blackberry fool (what a name indeed).As the dish makes its way through history, one of the vignettes makes a stop in slave-era South Carolina, where a mother and daughter prepare the dessert for their White masters.

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And that’s where the trouble really begins. In the illustrations and corresponding text, the slave mother and daughter can be seen preparing the meal, smiling as they complete their grim tasks.

Later, when the family has been fed, the mother and daughter huddle together in a cupboard in secret. The author sets the scene:After waiting table at supper – where the master and his family ate turtle soup, roast turkey, corn cakes and sweet potatoes – they spooned the blackberry fool into yellow dishes and served it. Later, the girl and her mother hid in the closet and licked the bowl clean together. Mmmmm. Mmmmm. Mmmmm. What a fine dessert!

Understandably, this raised a few eyebrows, especially on Twitter.{See link at the end of the post}

In March, The New York Times, wrote a glowing review for the book, albeit with the description of the illustrations as “somewhat unsettling.”

I’m going to try not to get too angry at the sheer “what the fuck, that’s really all you have SAY-ness” of the whole thing. Because if that isn’t the most Captain Obvious declaration, I don’t know what is.
Hell yea, it’s unsettling. Hell yea, we’re tired of seeing this.
No doubt, as many critics have expressed, the authors went in with the absolute best of intentions. Don’t they always?

But a quick sweep of their explanations leaves a thinly-veiled, deep-rooted misrepresentation of the true horrors of slavery. Which frankly, is just as troubling as not including it at all.In her blog, Blackall, the illustrator writes of the slaves’ depictions:

I wrote about people finding joy in craftsmanship and dessert even within lives of great hardship and injustice—because finding that joy shows something powerful about the human spirit. Slavery is such a difficult truth. At the end of the book, children can see a hopeful, inclusive community.”
The bottom, difficult line in all of this is that, ultimately, the ball was dropped in a major way. I’m sorry if slavery makes people uncomfortable. But guess what? There is no one more uncomfortable with it than Black people, whose ancestors endured it. But that does not mean we can buy into the colorblind narrative this country loves to grasp at with fingers oiled slick with discomfort.

Perhaps, in the illustrators’ mind, this is indeed where we’ve ended up as a society. But the reality of race in this country, as any of us can speak to, is a much darker one. One that is not often hopeful, and even less inclusive.

So absent is this inclusivity that Black people are often only seen in depictions of slavery. Or in some form of servitude, or as one mother found in a toy for her young son, literally in chains.

For a Black child who is reading books like these, there is no empowerment, no rebellion, no images showing characters taking pride in their identity. Instead, they are presented with images of a perpetual state of being less than, with affirmations that their joy is something to conceal and, most sinister of all, in the idea that the completion of tasks can only be a source of pride when they serve to make their White masters happy.

It’s hardly the first time we’ve seen a whitewash of slavery in history books and pop culture. In books and films, happy slaves can be seen everywhere, their smiles erasing the tribulations of Blacks in American history. Their minimized stories serving to placate White guilt. These books, at best, do little to show the true, dark side of the truth. At worst, they reinforce the dangerous suggestion perpetuated by racists everywhere that Black people were, somehow, happy to be in chains.
Jenkins, for her part, admitted that her book fell short of her intended outcome. She wrote:

I have read this discussion and the others with care and attention. I have come to understand that my book, while intended to be inclusive and truthful and hopeful, is racially insensitive. I own that and am very sorry. For lack of a better way to make reparations, I donated the fee I earned for writing the book to We Need Diverse Books.

Still, the book is rapidly on track to becoming one of the year’s most successful children’s books, and is even viewed as a front-runner for the prestigious Caldecott Award.

And so, as books like this continue to come out, we are reminded that we have to remain diligent in our criticisms of them. In spite of our desires to protect them, children are incredibly perceptive, resilient and should be treated as such. And we must continue to tell our stories not in a way that makes adults feel more comfortable, but in a way that tells our youth the whole truth they so deserve." [Source]

"How do we present the evils of history to the innocent mind and heart of a child?"

Here's a radical idea: Don't!

The child is innocent in heart and mind. Why taint that with the evils of history? For fuck's sake. We get it. Everyone gets it. You cannot be a live in this world and not get it. History was some seriously fucked-up, brutal, unfair, objectively cruel shit. That child will soon be of age to start going through the school system, wherein they can learn history.

Why do adults need to shove their ideologies on children from the earliest possible onset? I'll never understand that. It's like the self-worth of some individuals, their "affirmations," is tied up in how completely they can convince a child of a thing.

Why propagandize history's evils in order to make them palatable for children? What's the fucking rush in wanting to teach children about this stuff before they're even old enough to watch a PG movie on their own?

I'm 35. Many here are older than I am. Some are younger. We can all probably agree on one thing: It fucking flies by just like that! Before you know it, that "child" will be a growing individual, thirsting for knowledge. Don't replace the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse with horror stories of America's past, you fuckwits.

Although I do respect that you allow other people to post their opinions here, and you do a great job of not filtering them, you don't exactly strike me as the type of individual who himself would actually listen to another side of the story.

Though this is speculative on my part. In the event I'm wrong, you may perhaps be interested in seeing another take on this whole college outrage situation. This is a white guy, full disclosure, who's from England. I know him semi-personally (to speak to, not like 'hey, buddy, what's up'), and he's a big part of the Internet skeptic community. In this video he shows a few different college situations where minorities are outraged and protesting.

I don't expect this to change your personal opinion. What I hope, however, is after you watch it--assuming you do--is that you may realize why other people, myself included, always approach these Mizzou-type of issues with a healthy bit of skepticism. Out 20 minutes into the video, when he shows the Yale situation, one might conclude the the real privilege in America is black privilege. Think I'm bullshitting? Video proof below.

It's really disturbing to watch these entitled young people believe that their feelings give them the right to yell and scream at people, their professors and college heads no less, to have people fired, and to stomp around campus until the entire university capitulates to their whims. I'm not being hyperbolic; it really is quite disturbing how these young people act.

How ignorant a person do you plan on acting when attempting to disagree with me?

As I plainly said in my comment, these kids will grow up fast enough and learn history in school, you moronic fuckwit!

To the extent people want to show I'm wrong or stupid or whatever, what's your impediment to acting honestly? Seriously. You have to quote-mine me, when everything I said is literally sharing the screen. It beggars belief.

We're talking about children! Kids who are so young they need heavily illustrated books just to stay interested. Kids who need the books read to them because they're just fucking little kids!

And you want to indoctrinate their heads with this shit? WHY? So you feel better about yourself telling a story that you think is YOUR story?

You wanna see the results of teaching little kids this shit? Open the link of the video I posted to Field, scroll 20 minutes into the video, and watch these black young men and women at fucking Yale University and how they act based on a man not apologizing to them for having done absolutely nothing wrong. It's all about how they "feel." I bet their heads were crammed tight with this "affirmation" shit growing up; "Baby, you special 'cause you black. You were a slave. White people hate your skin. Look what they did to you!" And see how well it works out 18 years later.

"JOSH, do you have a better solution?"

A better solution to what, Anon? I left two comments. So, I'll answer for both.

Comment 1: Yes. Wait until the kids are fucking old enough to process the information before you start teaching them about literal evil! What sort of fucking maniacs are people who want to cram this shit into the heads of children in place of everyday bedtime stories? Some of you people scare the shit outta me. Honestly. It's like Christian creationism x10.

Comment 2: Yes. Understand that the world doesn't run on your feelings. College is not meant to be a safe-space home atmosphere where the entire university changes because of your emotional state. You're away from home; you're there learning how to be an adult in the real world. Don't stand there drawing on the fucking concrete in CRAYON, crying that people are racists because they didn't ban POTENTIALLY OFFENSIVE costumes for Halloween! Be a fucking adult.

"How about telling children the truth? Reality does not equal indoctrination."

I'm sure that's precisely what the Phelps' think they're doing.

How about literally just waiting a few simple, fly-by-quickly years, until the child is old enough to even process the information they're given?

Honest question. Answer it or don't. WTF is the rush to cram this shit into children's heads when they're so young that you have to read the stories to them? Why does it seem entirely like a feather in a cap for you adults that you want, at the earliest possible opportunity, to teach your children about EVIL!?

Are you going to have a sex talk with them when they're 4 and haven't hit puberty and cannot even process WTF you're talking about? Sex is exponentially, objectively more important to their lives than knowing American history. By any conceivable measure it is, but you wait until the right time when it's applicable to their lives, or at least when they can understand it.

Let me be clear, since people who assume I'm stupid and they're smarter than I am have yet to ever judge me by what I actually fucking say: In no way am I saying not to teach this to your children. I'm just advising, hoping, that parents will wait until their children are a little more grown and are able to process it a little more.

The reality is that some gruesome-ass horror movies exist in the world. They will find out about this reality in their lives. So, by your standard, let's sit them down when they're two-year-olds and let them watch Saw, as a man cuts off his own foot. Let's show little Timmy or Tammy Jason Vorhees as he hacks to death teenagers fucking in the woods.

There's time, parents. Doug, I don't know you, but I've read your comments here, and you seem to a rather--well, older individual. I'm not trying to bust your chops and call you old. But you're up there a little bit. How fast has it gone by? How many children have you watched go from their first step to their first car, and it felt like a week? Man, let the children develop some reasoning faculties before you parents begin dumping objective evil into their brains, forcing them to skew their perspectives of races in the world and developing complexes in how they're going to process information hence.

Sure. Tell children the truth. But how about wait until they get out of the believing in Santa and Easter Bunny range?

Come on, really? Are we supposed to believe that every moment of the institution of slavery was such horror that no slave ever smiled? I gotta say that that probably wasn't true. It's bound to be the case that some of the slaves -- the ones lucky enough to have had a "good" owner and to have been assigned the better jobs -- had lives that were at least tolerable some of the time.

It does not sound like this book is some piece of sinister propaganda justifying the institution of slavery as benign overall. Gone with the Wind, it ain't. Besides, what did the reviewer expect to appear in a book for little kids? Branding? Flogging? Rape scenes? This was meant to be age-appropriate.

Too many people have nothing better to do with their time than look for things to be mad about, apparently. Completely ridiculous.

Not lying to children and "how about teaching them the truth" are two completely separate, and potentially mutually exclusive ideas:

1) Santa is real (lie)[not one I'd gripe about; just an example of a thing that is technically a lie]2) Abstaining from teaching evil to children not old enough to grasp the subject matter (not a lie)

If one is going to teach a little child incapable of rational thought about historical societal evils, then why not also teach them about sex? At least sex will have some use in their lives.

My point with saying that was: You're obviously NOT going to teach them about sex when they're 4. DUH! And why not? Because they're too young!

But I suppose they're never too young to learn about objective evil in the world. Particularly if it's a white child. Teach that fucker quick, fast and in a hurry how he, because he was white, treated blacks so brutally in the past.

Fun times!

Whites were born wrong anyway. Original sin. Suss is out before they're on the training potty.

Baptism by fuckwit nursery rhymes. Hickery dickery dock, I severed a black man's cock. I lashed his bare back, strung him out on the rack, and let him bleed out 'til it stopped.

BUT, on the other hand, the American revolution is taught! The battles with the English are taught!

The "bad indians" that wanted to "scalp" the pilgrims,so they had to be killed that's also taught, and so on and so forth!

But anything bad that the descendants of those pilgrims did, like enslaving other humans, oh no that's too evil for children to read about! They must be 'protected,shielded' from such evil! Cover it up and sweep it under the proverbial rug ;)

Doug, straight up, homes, I'll believe you if you say that's not what you meant. But that is objectively not what you said.

If you want to teach a young child, far too young to even read the book him or herself, and certainly not old enough to fully comprehend it, all the evils of slavery, I don't stand in your way. I'm 100% for your right to do that! And if ever government tries to tell you that you cannot, I will stand directly beside you to fight against any Orwellian measures to control your child. It's your child!

I just don't see the point that a fucking parent would do that unless it is to indoctrinate their children with the societal beliefs the adult holds.

Sure, I'm weird. All I'm fucking saying is that it's not the end of the world to wait until the child develops some reasoning capabilities and the ability to understand said topic before you go teaching it to the child.

My brother had a baby daughter 9 months ago. From the day she got back from the hospital, he's been trying to stand her up and get her to keep her balance and take steps. "She's too young," I told him. "She'll be walking soon enough. She'll have a boyfriend soon enough! And you'll wish that you just let her be an innocent child that much longer."

Man. Our actions as adults shape our children. Why do so many parents utterly refuse to just let their children be children? They're always trying to cram their heads with some shit. Anti-homosexual shit, racism, baby Einstein shit, slavery, social conditioning, gender neutrality, etc, etc.

All these fucking things are the for the benefits of adults, not children. It's no wonder that the "sins of the father" used to be a big thing, and that "the apple doesn't fall far from the tree" was such an apt saying. Many parents mold their children into little versions of themselves.

They wanna watch Mickey Mouse and play with Legos and trucks and run around throwing things. And parents want them to absorb complex adult information and be carbon copies instead of just children.

Waiting until the child is old enough to understand the material IS NOT LYING to the child in any way, shape or form. History is history because it's passed; it's the past. It already happened. At any point the kid grows mentally capable enough to understand it, it will still be there! You're not going to miss a window, unless of course you really wanna get 'em young (as many parents want).

Let me be clear, since people who assume I'm stupid and they're smarter than I am have yet to ever judge me by what I actually fucking say: In no way am I saying not to teach this to your children. I'm just advising, hoping, that parents will wait until their children are a little more grown and are able to process it a little more.

One more time for the hard of reading:

Let me be clear, since people who assume I'm stupid and they're smarter than I am have yet to ever judge me by what I actually fucking say: In no way am I saying not to teach this to your children. I'm just advising, hoping, that parents will wait until their children are a little more grown and are able to process it a little more.

When is material like the American Revolution taught to children? I didn't learn about until like 5th grade or so. Double-digit age. It might have even been in middle-school, come to think about it. What in the actual fuck are you rambling on about with your "cover up" nonsense?

ALL OF THIS SHIT IS TAUGHT! Even in the whitest parts of the Bible Belt, they teach about the slave trade, the Underground Railroad, abolitionists, the Civil War and slavery angle, Jim Crow, Rosa Parks, MLK, MX, the CRM in general, etc.

Where in this entire nation, besides some racist's home-schooling compound, is this shit not being taught to children just like the American Revolution?

....

If that wasn't meant for me, I offer my apologies. Still in all, the anons could stand to actually read it.

There were loads of white enslaved workers imported to the US. In fact, it wasn't until the supply of work-to-death whites was exhausted that the plantation owners turned to importing blacks captured, enslaved and sold by other blacks.

The word slave comes from the root "slav".

The biggest players in the slave trade - including today - are Arabs. In fact, the world "black" and "slave" are the same in Arabic.

Why it is we no longer teach about the enslavement of whites by the blacks of Northern Africa, which didn't stop until the US Navy and Marines were finally given the mission to end it.

Some people love to live in victimhood - forever.

Contemporary whites don't owe blacks anything lest of which is being held hostage by attempts at guilt extortion.

Blacks in America live a life of unparalleled luxury in comparison to the rest of the world. Trillions has been spent in reparations and restitution. Enough.

Luckily, that racket is coming to an end. Obummer sliding his skinny butt into the digs at 1600 Penn was Peak Negro. We are definitely in the Post-Negro period.

The sun came out, another fake rage hissy fit by an aggrieved black chick.

"There's no way to sugar coat that ugly truth. The only way the white man can do is by writing and presenting that bullshit."

lilac, are you willing to address African history and the African present head-on as well? It makes anything done in America fade into insignificance. But I don't expect you to actually deal with this, because like BLM, those lives only "matter" when Whitey was involved. When Black lives are taken (and Black bodies eaten) by Blacks, that doesn't matter... to Blacks. Only when Blacks die because they act lawlessly does it "matter".

"All I'm fucking saying is that it's not the end of the world to wait until the child develops some reasoning capabilities and the ability to understand said topic before you go teaching it to the child."

Doug, my man. I'm honestly not trying to devolve this into some argument. But this is objective reality. It is demonstrable, which means it can be demonstrated. We can create a model of reality right now, which shows, beyond all doubt, that you did not say that.

You said: "How about telling children the truth?"

If what you MEANT was, "I don't think it's a good idea to lie to children," I am more than willing to believe that. But that is not what you said. You said "how about telling children the truth," which in the context of the discussion directly implied that you thought it better to teach this topic to children because it's the "truth." You even added more context to cement that implication, suggesting that teaching the truth is not indoctrination -- as I had claimed that teaching this to children too young to even read was just that.

Now, if the aim is to simply not lie to children, then it's objective that abstaining from teaching children this topic until which point they develop reasoning faculties is not lying to them. The exact same way that parents abstaining from teaching young kids about sex is not lying to them. It's simply holding onto that information until which time (a) they can process it and (b) it becomes applicable in their lives.

I don't care about your "feeling." I care about these pesky little facts we can simply scroll up to find.

Fucking tragedy. There goes those best single mothers on planet Earth, the strong black queens, leaving their children home alone while they run out to party down with fresh weave and Uncle Charlie's monthly stipend for booze and cigarettes.

Though were that boy raised well, by a mother actually worth a damn, with a father anywhere in a 3-state radius, I highly doubt he'd be that much of a lunatic. This is the type of mother that would read this book to her son, telling him how much the white man hates his skin and how he, himself, was a slave because of his skin color, and how he is oppressed by the man -- as she collects more of Uncle Charlie's money, lives in Uncle Charlie's housing, and has Uncle Charlie pay the medical bills for her multiple children by multiple men.

White folks past are responsible for a lot of shit. No white folks drawing breath today are responsible for the state of dumbfuckery happening in the single-mother black community. I've yet to see any Field "Education Series" posts about that hot mess.

Can't do that. Somebody might call him a self hater and remind him that his "mama black."

"No white folks drawing breath today are responsible for the state of dumbfuckery happening in the single-mother black community. I've yet to see any Field "Education Series" posts about that hot mess."

More happy slave narrative bullshit. This is happening all over. The James Bold types want to give our kids the alternative history so whites can feel even more superior. Good on the author for acknowledging she made a boo boo and needs to make amends. In the future maybe leave slaves out of feel good stories because the two don't mix. The past has direct implications on our present. See "1984" for good quotes.

Black college student, so incredibly mentally weak that the mere sight of a swastika caused him to break down emotionally, cry, go on a hunger strike, and demand a man who did everything he could to agree with the student be fired.

Field, that dude would be too weak to work in the field. We both know it!

Doug, I illustrated quite succinctly and accurately a demonstrable, objective case that shows who's right and who's wrong in the exchange. To the extent you want to act like a child about it rather than just offering up a very fucking simple, "My bad, dude. I did say that, but that's not what I meant; I misspoke," GFY. Seriously. You're a grown-ass man.

Go to Yale with those entitled brats and color on the concrete in crayon as you literally shed a waterfall down your cheeks because people have different opinions and that's not supposed to happen in college.

You don't wanna lie to children, but lying in this forum to everyone is apparently perfectly fucking acceptable.

"The James Bold types want to give our kids the alternative history so whites can feel even more superior."

I want to give my kids REAL history, not propaganda designed to soften them up for the genocide-in-progress. I don't care if they feel superior to you, though they would if they bothered to look at your accomplishments; what I want is for them to once again have the luxury of not having to even think about you. You would get the same luxury (while living in mud huts, no doubt).

Comment 2: Yes. Understand that the world doesn't run on your feelings. College is not meant to be a safe-space home atmosphere where the entire university changes because of your emotional state. You're away from home; you're there learning how to be an adult in the real world. Don't stand there drawing on the fucking concrete in CRAYON, crying that people are racists because they didn't ban POTENTIALLY OFFENSIVE costumes for Halloween! Be a fucking adult.

11:59 PM------------Now 'this' kind of insensitivity is what makes me cry. No wonder you folks can enslave, lynch, and Jim Crow folks without feeling a thing....hell, you don't have any. And you consider yourselves human?

Blogger Josh said...It was just a neighborhood. Far as I'm aware, no "blah" owned it. I split time, occasionally, between Northern VA and MD but only because my father traveled for work at Rappawan (sp).

4:57 AM-----------I am surprised to see you use the offensive term "blah" for Blacks. So now it's you and Kinky who have joined in degrading Blacks? Oh wait....you've been doing that...You just found an extra word to trash us with...never mind.

Mizzou hunger-strike figure from Omaha, son of top railroad exechttp://www.stltoday.com/lifestyles/columns/joe-holleman/mizzou-hunger-strike-figure-from-omaha-son-of-top-railroad/article_20630c03-2a68-5e63-9585-edde16fe05f3.html

Nothing says oppression like having a daddy worth $20 million.

for the Union Pacific Railroad. His 2014 compensation was $8.4 million

Shameful that the book wouldn't have been disqualified for the Caldecott Award just for that one scene.

One reason to make noise about recently printed lies and cultural racism is that you don't have to go very far back to see it permanently enshrined in classic movies. Not just "Gone with the Wind", either--one of my favorite comedies, "Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House" with Cary Grant, is marred by the screaming stereotype of a black live-in maid, complete with wide grin and "sho' nuff" speech patterns. 1948.

But how about cartoons? This Donald Duck cartoon features a black ant safari! And stick around for the ant version of Step'n Fetchit! Millions of views on You Tube in its various uploads.

You can't fight those "classics." But you can make a stink about what's recent.

I don't know that kids never found joy or happiness in their master appointed tasks. People slave or not experiences happiness sometimes. Racism is real slavery happened and is happening now its important to remember but theres more important shit going on than getting all bent out of shape at a kids book or the next offense taken at some asshole spouting the n word.

"I want to give my kids REAL history, not propaganda designed to soften them up for the genocide-in-progress. I don't care if they feel superior to you, though they would if they bothered to look at your accomplishments; what I want is for them to once again have the luxury of not having to even think about you. You would get the same luxury (while living in mud huts, no doubt)."

Man James, what do yo have against ME? What if you and fly your kids fly to Paris and I'm the pilot? You just want your kids to ignore me? Just wow.On another note you seem to be good at propagandizing history on your own. I guess you'll teach your kids that it was ok to kill blah people for simply trying to vote or register others to vote. That isn't a very good thing to teach kids to most civilized human beings but that's on the working assumption raising civilized kids is a priority.

"I just recall you ripping me, Field and PC for having our dads in our lives."

Man, this is one of the problems of not judging someone by what they say, but rather quote-mining words that they technically said bereft of all context. I don't take it personally. I'm just shocked by how many people actually do this.

There was a discussion one time here at Field's, I forget the exact particulars, but it was about blacks in ghetto environments, downtrodden, single-mother households, in the actual 'hood. And some people, only because they're black, were not only speaking on those issues as if they had an expert level of understanding, but were simultaneously telling me that I could never understand because it was a "black thing" and I was white.

So, I got to reminding people, and you and Field may have been two of them, that if you grew up in a middle-class community, with both parents, went to a good school, had grass in your yard, actually got shit for Christmas and birthdays, etc, STFU about how I can't know that things -- because, unlike some folks, I actually came up in that underbelly of extreme poverty in the ghetto, lights on 2 weeks a month, meals only 3 nights a week, literally trying to avoid making friends because you're sick of missing people who get shot. If I busted your balls for growing up that way, it's only because I'm sick to death of people telling me I don't live in the fucking world because I'm white. No, goddammit, y'all didn't live in MY world. Oh, a white woman clutched her purse when you walked by and suddenly airborne osmosis gives you cred! Watch out, now.

Nah, if I ripped y'all, that's why. The whole mysticism of "I can speak to it because I'm black, even if I grew up privileged, but whites can never speak to it...because reasons." You realize how insulting that is? You realize how nonsensical that is?

I mean, maybe you and Field and PC have street cred galore! Maybe y'all know exactly all the ins and outs of living that sort of life. Maybe the guys who grew up there wouldn't call y'all studio gangstas. I don't know. All I know is that y'all tried to force on me that I had no idea, solely because of my skin color, so, yeah, I probably tried to rip y'all a new one.

"Now 'this' kind of insensitivity is what makes me cry. No wonder you folks can enslave, lynch, and Jim Crow folks without feeling a thing....hell, you don't have any. And you consider yourselves human?"

Anon, please. Cry! Bawl your baby-ass eyes out. Don't turn this into something it isn't, you overly sensitive pussy. These are not fucking children at universities! These are young men and women in their late teens and 20s, supposedly preparing for the REAL WORLD! They left home. They're there to get an education and to become independent professionals. They're there to exist in a collegiate atmosphere, where their ideas, opinions and beliefs ARE SUPPOSED TO BE CHALLENGED! College is SUPPOSED to be the open marketplace of ideas!

And what do these pussies demand? Pre-crime! They LITERALLY demand that the university creates a safe-space wherein they CANNOT BE OFFENDED! They are literally demanding that the university protect their emotions!

Anon, at which point are you ready to teach a child that the world doesn't run on their feelings? How ironic is it that you're ready to teach slavery to a fucking 3-year-old as a bedtime story, but see a 21-year-old and say it's like slavery and Jim Crow to tell this person to be a GROWN UP and to stop demanding that their feelings matter in the world!"

THEY DO NOT! These are fucking ADULTS. They are literally drawing on the concrete in CRAYON, calling the school's headmaster an EVIL PERSON because he has a different OPINION than they have! They are trying to get this man fired, trying to bully him, and are literally crying and screaming like THREE-YEAR-OLDS because he has a different OPINION than they have! And your idea to "fix" this is to actually cave in and tell these FUCKING ADULTS that the world DOES run on their feelings?

How the fuck do you expect these young adults to make in the world when they literally break down, cry, draw in coloring books, and scream in horror every single time someone disagrees with them? And here are you, acting exponentially more racist than anyone I've seen, trying to say it's a BLACK THING!

It's an overly-coddled spoiled-rotten thing. They just happen to be black, you racist. ($100 vs. $1 you DIDN'T watch the video.)

Though on the same note: I apologize to the extent I did not realize that, apparently, blacks believe that black children stay children up through their 20s and through college. So you may as well read them that "real" history when they're 2. You treat them the same when they're 22.

Thanks, anon, for enlightening me. I was wondering why Field was naming an overly-sensitive baby, who literally could not emotionally deal with seeing the IMAGE of a swastika, as FNB. Now I know why.

My mammy use to tell me those were some dark days but over all blacks were happy. My mammy always asked this question-

"Were would we alls be without slavery?".

Can you imagine an America with a small blah population? An America where blahs had no rhythm or fine hair. An America where corner backs and wide receivers were white? An America where La Bron James was Tommy James?

Pilot x would be flying for Zimbabwe airlines? Dr. Queen would be queen of Botswana? Field Negreo would be Field weed?

"Man, this is one of the problems of not judging someone by what they say, but rather quote-mining words that they technically said bereft of all context. I don't take it personally. I'm just shocked by how many people actually do this."

Sorry about that, I just don't recall the text but I do remember you ripping us a few weeks back. I should have scrolled through your hundreds of posts over the span of weeks to find the exact one that I remembered, printed it and highlighted the exact quote I wanted and then studied it to get the true and proper context and THEN asked you about it. Or I could have done what I did and asked you to provide context. Next time I'll do the former even though any sane individual would just ask for clarification. Never let an opportunity to have an internet rant pass I guess. Don't worry Josh, your street cred is in tact and Field, PC and I will get together to watch season 5 of the Wire to get to your level. Hell, I even have the B'more lingo and Stringer Bell walk down pat Yo.

Yeah, I've been ripping y'all on that one for years now, not just a few weeks back. I've always had an issue with being told that, because of my skin color, I cannot know something.

Just as you have an issue with being told that, because of your skin color, you can't do something.

Are we not both justified in our feelings and in busting balls when people treat us as X and Y only because of the color of our skin?

And we're talking here like two fucking grown-ups, Pilot. At least I'm trying to treat you like a man. I'm not being mean, nasty, snarky, condescending, or anything. I'm talking to you like we're both fucking men who can speak intelligently to one another.

Why do you feel the need to be so incessantly snarky and condescending and sarcastic in your comments toward me every single fucking time we speak? I mean, if that's how you want to carry it, carry it. I'm not mad at ya. But then don't turn around and say it's insulting that I'd say you break my balls because you hate me.

Look at how I responded by attempting to explain to you, in detail, the context as I recall it. And look at how you fucking responded, with nothing but bullshit snark, condescension and sarcasm.

"I am surprised to see you use the offensive term "blah" for Blacks. So now it's you and Kinky who have joined in degrading Blacks?"

Get over yourself, you self-entitled dimwit. You're literally not only trying to police language, but are trying to tell me that my action of QUOTING PX's word back to him means that I said it and that I'm degrading blacks.

However, it could be I am unfairly holding you to the standard that you even know what quoted text is. But you quoted me saying it, so I suspect you do. But maybe you don't understand the nuance there and that I wasn't saying "blah," but was actually quoting PX having said "blah," which is demonstrated by my saying "blah," with quotation marks around it, illustrating that those were his words!

At any point you decide to prove James Bold wrong, it might help to think a thing through rather than just blurting out randomly every time you become emotionally charged in life. Is this something you're capable of? Can you act like a normal member of society and think before acting? I believe you can. You just have to want to do it!

That will help all people tremendously. Stoicism. It's not that a thing happens to you; it's how you, an individual, handle it. But not 'round here. It's all about that thing happening! Muh feels! How I feel! I feel! Our feels! We feel!

Replace "feel" with "think" and see which gets you farther.

Just a suggestion. Just run it as a three-month test in your life. You don't even have to tell me the results. Just insert "think" where you'd otherwise use "feel" and see how it works out. It fails? Go back to "feel." But I have a "feeling," pun intended, it would work out well.

As a Jew, I didn't tell my very young children a large portion of their family was gassed and starved to death in the Holocaust or about the Displaced Persons tragedy after the war. We didn't read gory children's books about those horrors to them either. Why would we? We answered their questions simply, age appropriately, if they were called a derogatory name, too.

As teenagers, they eventually saw the films of the liberation of the death camps and read the history of the European Jews and the pogroms in Russian Jews as teenagers. We discussed their family history. It is imperative to know their history when a child is old enough and certainly NOT through bedtime stories.

No Josh, you are NEVER condescending. In fact you are fucking perfect. A perfect human being. You are even capable of reading minds so you are able to tell Doug what his words meant. I will agree with everything you say to avoid an argument. You are like that grandmother our grandfathers taught us how to handle, just agree with everything they say because they will argue about everything and annoy the shit out of you. So sure Josh, it is I who just needs to grow up because real adults have forty pages of arguments about every fucking thing on a blog! Good point, I'll be the gotdamned adult to stop your word proliferation.

Holy fucking shit, more language police dimwits who can't see the irony here.

So, which is more "emotional."

1) Using words?2) Wanting to police words?

"As far as the term "blah" is concerned, if you are using it because PX is using it, then you are heavily influenced by him which makes you a dumb-ass."

You are too stupid a fucking person for me to explain this again. Either you figure it out or don't. I didn't use the term "blah" because PX used it, you stone-ignorant bastard. I QUOTED HIM SAYING IT! These things: " "

By your standards, as ignorant as they are, I'm the one that just said "As far as the term 'blah' is concerned, if you are using it because PX is using it..." and I didn't simply quote YOU saying it.

Are you honestly this moronic an individual? Or is it that you imbeciles just want so badly to disagree with me that you just spam shit without thinking it through?

Fuck! Yeah, prove James Bold wrong not by rejecting stereotypes, but by embracing them!

Did I charge "blacks" with being too emotional? Or YOU? YOU are not "blacks." YOU are YOU. You are an individual. YOU were not a slave! You were not lynched or beaten or castrated or kept out of school or employment or white society because of your race.

Maybe if you gave yourself more thought, in how you presented yourself, you wouldn't present yourself as such a fuckwit whose IQ, I'd wager $50 on, is within 8 points either way of 80.

Anonymous Anonymous said...Anon 7:02pm: the Holocaust and the enslaving of blacks are two very different things. Bedides those "displaced Jews" you mention were given their own country to live in, Israel.

9:57 PM------------They were given their own country because they were White.

Anonymous Anonymous said...Anon 7:02pm: the Holocaust and the enslaving of blacks are two very different things. Bedides those "displaced Jews" you mention were given their own country to live in, Israel.

9:57 PM------------------

Your comment is so completely clueless and uneducated, I won't bother wasting my time further.

Glad to see Pilot's objectively is completely intact and it's not as if he'd just have someone's back if it's against me.

NOOO. That'd be crazy.

"Although I must say you have Mr Trump beat by a long shot when it comes to distorted ego self-imagining."

I'd much rather be a narcissistic individual than a self-deluded part of a collective. How did Pink Floyd put it? Cold comfort for change. Take on faith whatever's needed to remain part of the in-group.

And to the extent presenting logical arguments, requiring evidence, providing evidence, etc, before just accepting something on faith makes me some ego maniac, then an ego maniac I suppose I am.

If faith and the standard of "listen and believe" is what works for you, let it work. You're a grown-ass person who reads a curse word and is so emotionally triggered by it that you project outward that the person using it must be, like you, an emotional basketcase.

Curse words aren't offensive to me. They're descriptors which denote emphasis a lot fucking easier than using fucking tags every fucking time one wants to put some fucking emphasis on something. But your mind can't handle that. "OMG! CURSING! CURSING! It's the BLAHPOCALYPSE!" Was that you who cried and tried to suicide after meeting the poop Nazis?

How bad could your life have been in this modern first-world nation that curse words send you into a tailspin of sophist bloodletting? #FirstWorldProblems

Does anybody really believe JOSH has an undergraduate degree in English? I mean, he curses a lot, which indicates he has a very limited vocabulary. That's what they say in a vigorous undergraduate English Curriculum.

FYI: Dumb-ass troll, my BA is in English Lit. You seem to be confusing "English," like a simple fucking high-school subject that leans on synonyms and definitions, with a course that focuses primarily on literature that's mostly Anglo-Saxon from a particular period. "English" having a completely different fucking meaning there, you moron. Then there's some literary theory and some writing nonsense.

I did get my BA online, thank you very much. Are you one of those snobs who bitches that inner city schools need tablets and new textbooks because, apparently, numbers in math are different depending on the condition of the materials? Third-world children learn to be fucking math wizards packed 50 in a hut with no clean drinking water. I can hear your snob ass now. "HAHAHA! Look at the poor people who can't afford REAL schools!" Or: "Look at the, poor People who can't Afford real, Schools," as you'd be more grammatically inclined to write.

I couldn't afford to attend another live university. Even being shipped out to a postgrad GWU satellite in Ashburn, shit was still so damn expensive. And I reckon when I applied for loans, they just saw TOO MUCH white privilege in me and didn't give me any funding. So I paid for my education completely out of pocket. I started with community college, then worked for 2 full years saving my money for applying for a master's program. (Sorry. I forgot to say "trigger warning" before I said "work.")

"That's what they say in a vigorous undergraduate English Curriculum." 1) Says the guy who Randomly capitalizes Words and then tries to Pretend that he knows what They say anywhere in "English." I don't even wanna think about where the fuck your word puzzles would be without spellcheck. Set the sensitivity level for grammar, too.

2) Not "English" as in spelling words, you fuckwit.

But it's nice to know you cling to every single word I write here, while simultaneously trying to feign as if you don't read what I say.

I defy any black person to find a place to live than America. Your race is the most violent, law breaking, stupid people on the plant yet you are ungrateful you were brought to the USA. How is Africa doing these days?

Yep, Yisheng. After a postgrad in evolutionary-biology, which about killed me and made me never want to see another laboratory in my life, I started researching writing positions online. Turns out, having a BA in English Lit gave me like a 37% better chance to be hired.

So, I decided to receive a degree in a field in which I planned to work.

Isn't that just so soft, funny and stupid!? I mean, who does that?

Seriously. Who does that? Not the UoM students, obviously.

And why are you breaking balls over it? You come in here bragging your ass off that black people are getting their bachelor's and master's and PhDs in large numbers! Guess what they're getting them in, Yisheng! SOFT "social" fields. NOT STEM fields. BET.com can't even spin the truth. The "S" doesn't stand for "social."

Damn right my 3rd degree, which I didn't even start until 27, was a "soft" one. Damn right I enrolled at a place I could afford. And damn right I'm not embarrassed to have fucking earned it, despite how often you illiterate fuckwits try to break my balls for it!

Your stupid ass cannot even demonstrate a proper understanding of 10th-grade biology. Maybe a "soft" degree would do you good.

Any other people want to attempt to make fun of a person who sought to improve his life with an additional college degree? Any other morons want to show a gross lack of understanding of what an English Lit course even is? Somebody else wanna confuse rigorous with "vigorous"?

Jing (AKA Josh), you are TRULY wasting time posting anything for me to read. As a STEM MASTER, the things you write are just too pre-K for my tastes, hence the lack of substantial response on those rare occasions I respond at all.

"Man James, what do yo have against ME? What if you and fly your kids fly to Paris and I'm the pilot?"

(all errors in original) Tell me, what can you do that a thousand White guys could do instead, and likely better? Knowing that you've passed a program designed to increase the "representation" of "under-represented minorities" in B757 cockpits does not give me one bit of reassurance.

Sure, you can handle things when they're going right; after some training on the specifics, I probably could. But what about when things are going wrong? That's when I want Sullenberger in that left seat, not a tyro like me... or a racial token. Since we don't know when things are going to go wrong, I don't want you in the cockpit of any craft I'm on. Nothing personal, but that's the reality that "Affirmative Action" and its de-facto quotas has given us.

There's a reason that airlines in Africa have astonishingly high accident and fatality rates. It's because Africans have a combination of high self-esteem combined with poor knowledge and judgement. It's how you get "aviators" like this example from Kenya. (Here's another, from Zimbabwe. Yes, these people are jokes... but they don't know they are jokes. They are 100% serious. So is everyone supplying them with money; the evidence that something is badly wrong is right in their faces, but they can't see it. It's a massive and widespread cognitive deficiency.)

Now take all of that, and add the little fact that you aren't alone. You come with an entire baggage train of relations ranging from pretty good (the IKAGOs, among whom Bill Cosby was once counted) to mediocre to parasitic unemployables to stone-cold murderers of young White mothers (we know what color the perps will be; they'll be practically indistinguishable from the murderers of Angel Antonio Santaigo and Autumn Pasquale and Anne Pressly).

"I guess you'll teach your kids that it was ok to kill blah people for simply trying to vote or register others to vote."

I'll teach my kids about the physical collapse of cities with Black populations, and the descent of cities with Black governments into total barbarism. Gary, Detroit, Birmingham, Memphis, Camden, Baltimore... and many more. I will teach my kids that Blacks have no business selecting the government that rules over Whites, or using government to extort resources from them. Even Blacks eventually recognize that Blacks screw things up (see the recent White mayors of Detroit and Memphis).

My folk provide you with hot and cold running water, a high culture, and advanced science and engineering that yields things like computers and airliners. The problem is, you don't reciprocate. There is no point to having you around. Nothing personal, just the cold hard facts. I think you should have sub-Saharan Africa as a "safe space" away from Whitey, and America safe from you. (continued)

"that's on the working assumption raising civilized kids is a priority."

Yes, the replacement of actual discipline (which has "disparate impact") with "restorative justice" in e.g. the Los Angeles schools is working out so well at civilizing you, isn't it? Uh, actually not.

The race that is still living in mud huts thousands of years after Egypt, Minos and Sumer has nothing to teach Europeans about civilization. You cargo-cultists can't even ape it very well.

Yes, Josh, they are. Following a train of reasoning is quite literally too hard even for the IKAGOs posting here with mostly-proper spelling and grammar. Tribal solidarity trumps everything. A few thousand years of survival where Nature is the enemy and reasoning and planning are essential to seeing the next spring would cure that, but nothing less will do.

That's what makes this blog so funny. It's literally watching almost-humans trying to be human, and the unintentional comedy that results. Now to make them pay their own way and stop having to be zookeepers....

"Knowing that you've passed a program designed to increase the "representation" of "under-represented minorities" in B757 cockpits does not give me one bit of reassurance."

Really? What exactly does this program entail? Specifics please. I'm sure the white guys who fly the same profiles would like to know they're getting inferior training. Ha! You certainly are a laugh a minute Bold.

"Sure, you can handle things when they're going right; after some training on the specifics, I probably could. But what about when things are going wrong? That's when I want Sullenberger in that left seat, not a tyro like me... or a racial token."

And what could go wrong? An engine failure/fire? Dual generator failure? Dual engine failure? What could possibly go wrong? Let me know and I'll explain in detail how I've been trained to handle any such emergency. Your lack of knowledge about how airline pilots are trained isn't surprising, most poor white racist trash aren't very educated and you prove this everyday. Ha! Racial token. Ha! Your ignorance is astounding(not really).

Well let me know when you want to start training because I'm a Gold Seal Flight Instructor with thousands of hours training neophyte aviators. I could probably even teach an idiot like you how to fly but it'll cost you a grip to put up with your ignorant attitude.

Hey, dumb-ass, I also have a bachelor of science in biology, and a master's of science in evolutionary-biology, which is why I was instantly able to spot your fraud-ass when you typed objectively incorrect biology information across the screen. (And then tried to pull the AAVE card. LMFAO!*) And we both fucking know it. You were dancing in circles trying to explain how yous juss uze diff'ran languidg den us wacists. You're just too stupid to realize that throwing out distractions doesn't make that face full O'egg go away. All it does it give me more opportunities to expose you as a hoax. Like the Heil Shitler Poop Nazis of the #2 Reich. Bullshit hoax. Well, human-shit hoax.

To the extent James Bold is wrong about you, you may want to consider defeating the stereotypes rather than embracing them.

So either:

1) You were taught a dumbed-down version compared to everyone else, a version that used AAVE2) Biology works differently based on vernacular 3) You're a full-of-shit braggart who's probably a stay-at-home welfare mom of 3 kids with 3 different fathers, who's edumakaded in a school that employed social promotion and "fairness adjusted" grading scales because of cultural bias.

Mr. Field: I appreciate that, in the event you are able to see everyone's ISP, you keep their private information private.

However, in the event that you find me creating phony names, using anon, etc, I would appreciate you call me out on it with proof. Just say, "Josh, I see that you're using other names."

At every single blog I visit, I'm just "Josh." I'm just Josh. Always just Josh. I don't hide what I'm feeling. I say what's on my mind. And I don't need sock-puppet accounts like uptownsteve. I'm always just Josh.

Yisheng, you cannot divert from the fact that a supposed "STEM MASTER" has yet to even comprehend basic high-school-level biology. You're a glutton for fucking punishment, though, I'll hand it to ya. At least Steve abandoned ship when exposed as a hoax. You keep kicking the bee hive.

But WTF does it matter? It's not like your buddy Pilot has a word to say about it until which point you hit me with a That 70s Show burn, at which point he'll gleefully write, "Hammer meet nail" like I just got served.

"And what could go wrong? An engine failure/fire? Dual generator failure? Dual engine failure? What could possibly go wrong? Let me know and I'll explain in detail how I've been trained to handle any such emergency."

So your multi-engine experience ends at twins. Interesting to know.

I have no doubt you are trained to handle such emergencies and lesser events; I've read about the simulators and other training systems, and I find them quite impressive. But that doesn't mean that you'd diagnose the problems as swiftly, deal with them as accurately, and e.g. avoid flying the aircraft into cumulogranite in the mean time as a White guy. "Meets standards" may not be enough when TSHTF. I want the best candidates, and "diversity" initiatives will forever taint your accomplishments. For that matter, your obvious defensiveness is probably going to get in the way of smooth working relationships and anticipation of needs in the cockpit.

"I could probably even teach an idiot like you how to fly"

You're way too late for that. The FAA ticket in my wallet was issued 30 years ago.

"Thousands of hours". How many years did you spend in single-engine Pipers and Cessnas and flying twin Beeches before you got an opportunity to go for ATP? How many White guys in your shoes got passed over?

"most poor white racist trash aren't very educated and you prove this everyday."

You forgot "trailer-park". That's what you clowns were throwing at me when I came in. If I live in a trailer, it's one that has a $4500 summer property-tax bill... and that's with the homestead-exemption discount.

"And James wants us to believe an ignoramous like himself has a degree in engineering and hold several patents? I guess fairies and unicorns exist in that world too."

To cargo-cultists like yourself, there's no difference. This stuff just "is", and Whitey is mean for hogging it all to himself.

And you're back to insults. "Ignoramus" is a mighty big word. Tell you what, why don't you just take me up on my bet and get the word of an officer of the court that you're either right or wrong?

"But that doesn't mean that you'd diagnose the problems as swiftly, deal with them as accurately, and e.g. avoid flying the aircraft into cumulogranite in the mean time as a White guy."

You mean like the white guys who planted a business jet into an apartment complex in Ohio this past week? Wow, I guess the white mind is just so advanced they thought they could defy the rules of physics and fly right through a building huh? How about the white guys who caused the deadliest crash in aviation history? Their brains must have been diagnosing problems at an astonishing rate to come up with the idea it was ok to takeoff on a runway with another jumbo jet still occupying it. Or how about the white genius who ran a DC-8 out of fuel in Oregon and killed a bunch of people. Oh yeah, white is always right. Only white males can successfully fly airplanes huh James? Typical but I don't expect much from you.

Well seeing that almost all modern commercial airliners are twins uh that would stand to reason. What is interesting is that a person who claims to have something to do with the newest TWIN engine airliner doesn't know this. I would say I'm surprised but I'm not.

"You mean like the white guys who planted a business jet into an apartment complex in Ohio this past week?"

Not having a television, I hadn't gotten wind of that one. But I found a site which lists aviation disasters, and wouldn't you know... the very same day a flight in South Sudan went down, killing 16 on board and apparently another 21 on the ground, for 4 times the death toll. Further, the bizjet is the only loss-of-life accident in the USA listed for 2015. For some reason, Indochina has lots of incidents this year.

"How about the white guys who caused the deadliest crash in aviation history?"

If you bothered to read the actual accounts of the accident, you'd know that there were major issues due to many flights diverting to Tenerife as well as fog which prevented the two aircraft from seeing each other.

"Their brains must have been diagnosing problems at an astonishing rate to come up with the idea it was ok to takeoff on a runway with another jumbo jet still occupying it."

An aircraft was taxiing on the runway because the taxiway had to be used for overflow parking, and they had clearance from the tower (which couldn't see anything either). There may also have been language issues, because the controllers in the Canaries may not have been entirely fluent in English. (Contrast and compare the difficulty of getting ideas through the head of a native Ebonics speaker.)

So why is Tenerife still the biggest aviation disaster to date? It's because Africans, like the Sudanese above, don't fly 747s. Africans regularly wreck airplanes and kill people, but usually in handfuls to dozens which don't make the news here any more than Chicago thug obituaries are read anywhere else. They kill a lot of people, though.

Hey, maybe YOU can put African pilots on that particular map!

"Only white males can successfully fly airplanes huh James?"

Anyone can be a "success" if you define "success" low enough. Lowering the bar enough for typical Africans to get over it is not a good thing.

"Well seeing that almost all modern commercial airliners are twins uh that would stand to reason. What is interesting is that a person who claims to have something to do with the newest TWIN engine airliner doesn't know this."

That tells me that you didn't come up through the Air Force as a bomber pilot where you flew B-52's. Nor did you spend any seat-time flying 747 freighters building hours to go ATP. A340's and A380's... not a chance.

Looks like you didn't spend much time paying your dues to get where you are. You are an affirmative-action creature, and all your butthurt about it proves that you know it too.

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